At nine o’clock at night we reached the city of Semlin, in the vicinity of which we halted.  Semlin is a fortified place, situated at the junction of the Save with the Danube; it contains 13,000 inhabitants, and is the last Austrian town on the right bank of the Danube.

On approaching Semlin, a few small cannons were fired off on board our boat.  Unfortunately the steward did not receive notice of this event early enough to allow of his opening the windows, consequently one was shattered:  this was a serious misfortune for us, as the temperature had sunk to zero, and all the landscape around was covered with snow.  Before leaving Vienna, the cabin stove had been banished from its place, as the sun had sent forth its mild beams for a few days, and a continuance of the warm weather was rashly relied on.  On the whole, I would not advise any traveller to take a second-class berth on board a steamer belonging to the Viennese company.  A greater want of order than we find in these vessels could scarcely be met with.  The traveller whose funds will not permit of his paying first-class fare will do better to content himself with a third-class, i.e. a deck-passage, particularly if he purposes journeying no farther than Mohacs.  If the weather is fine, it is more agreeable to remain on deck, watching the panorama of the Danube as it glides past.  Should the day be unfavourable, the traveller can go, without ceremony, into the second-class cabin, for no one makes a distinction between the second and third-class places.  During the daytime, at any rate, it is quite as agreeable to remain on deck as to venture below.  Travelling down the river from Pesth, the women are compelled to pass the night in the same cabin with the men; an arrangement as uncomfortable as it is indecorous.  I afterwards had some experience of steamers belonging to the Austrian Lloyds, on whose vessels I always found a proper separation of the two sexes, and a due regard for the comfort of second-class passengers.

The cold was so severe, that we would gladly have closed every window, but for the close atmosphere engendered by the number of poor people, mostly Jews, who form the larger portion of passengers on board a Hungarian steamer.  When the weather is unfavourable, these men are accustomed to hasten from their third-class places to those of the second class, where their presence renders it immediately desirable to open every outlet for purposes of ventilation.  What the traveller has to endure on board these vessels would scarcely be believed.  Uncushioned benches serve for seats by day and for beds by night.  A separation of the two sexes is nowhere attempted, not even on board the Ferdinand, in which you enter the Black Sea, and are exposed to the merciless attacks of sea-sickness.

Considering the high rate of passage-money demanded on this journey, I really think the traveller might expect better accommodation.  The first-class to Constantinople costs 120 florins, {23} the second 85 florins, exclusive of provisions, and without reckoning the hotel expenses at Presburg.